Seth Rogen's lazy characters belie a Type A actor on the rise

PETER SORELSeth Rogen plays an obsessive security guard in the new black comedy, "Observe and Report."

NEW YORK -- If you've been to a movie comedy in the last few years, you probably know Seth Rogen.

He's the schlubby co-worker in "40-Year-Old Virgin." The sloppy slacker in "Knocked Up." The screw-up cop in "Superbad." The stoned process-server in "Pineapple Express." The flat-broke barista in "Zack and Miri Make a Porno." He was even the voice of the slobby blob in "Monsters Vs. Aliens."

And if you think any of those lovable losers is anything like him -- well, you don't know Seth Rogen.

"People are always like, 'So you're playing yourself, basically," he says one morning in Manhattan, sitting in a publicist's borrowed office. "But I've never played a really successful, motivated guy. None of my characters wakes up at 8:30, gets coffee and then writes for 16 hours. And that's what I do most days. I'm not just hanging out, clicking on porn sites."

Even further away from the real Rogen -- sometimes scarily so -- is the character he plays in the new "Observe and Report," a pitch-black comedy about an obsessive security guard. Another "Mall Cop"? Well, maybe as re-cast with Robert DeNiro -- and if the outwardly amiable Rogen has a real worry this morning it's that his Travis-Bickle-with-a-Badge film may get pushed as just another talk-dirty, feel-good comedy.

"It's insane, because stupid marketing can ruin a movie," he says. "I remember going to see 'The Cable Guy' when I was, like, 15 and expecting to see 'Ace Ventura,' and not. Now, of course, I think that movie's amazing, but I remember being really confused... Which is why we've been in major conversations with Warner Bros. about 'Observe and Report.' This is not a goofy comedy."

He laughs again -- a rapid-fire chuckle that will pop up every minute or so. But there's no real humor in it. It's more of a habit with Rogen -- maybe a tic left over from years of sitting around talking with comedians, listening to other people's jokes -- and often it just punctuates a point, or masks a concern.

"I'm all for truth in advertising, but it seems the studios are afraid of that," he says. "'Pineapple Express,' they hated our trailer. They wanted it to look like 'Harold & Kumar.' And, you know, nothing against that movie, but why make everything look like everything else? Not only do you not get the audience who might enjoy something different, you annoy a lot of the people who come. I mean, if we don't make it clear 'Observe and Report' is a dark movie, we're going to make some people really mad."

"It's a much more dramatic turn than people are expecting from Seth," says director Jody Hill. "In recent movies, people have come to know him as this sort of lovable stoner, but I was interested in kind of taking what people think they know and twisting that. And Seth was just as interested in testing the boundaries. ... He's got a real rebel spirit."

Rogen -- who turns 27 this month -- grew up in Vancouver, the red-diaper baby of a couple of committed activists. But there was still time for old movies, and an appreciation of humor. Were his parents funny? "Well, they thought they were hilarious," he says with a slight smile. But their son was clearly a prodigy, doing his first professional stand-up gigs while his friends were struggling with their bar mitzvah speeches.

"Your instinct is to write jokes the way you see everybody else write jokes," he says. "So my first ones were kind of, you know, 'What is the deal with Tupperware parties?' Then one comic told me, 'Look, you're the only teenager out there doing comedy, you should be talking about driver's ed, or touching a girl for the first time.' And that small piece of advice probably helped me more than anything, because it was basically 'Don't write about what other people are talking about. Write about what you want to talk about.'"

By 16, Rogen had dropped out of high school and moved to L.A., where he started getting acting jobs. Although his rise was swift, the experience wasn't pleasant. He was shocked when his first two series -- "Freaks and Geeks" and "Undeclared" -- were canceled. He was hurt every time he'd meet someone in a bar, and it was clear they were glancing over his shoulder to see if anyone more important was walking in.

"Hollywood has a way of making you very bitter very fast," he says, "I get there, suddenly I'm on a TV show, which I think is awesome, and I go to a party -- and I realize nobody cares. Girls won't talk to me because my ratings are low ... It was insane. I realized it was all a popularity contest. I thought I had left high school and suddenly I was in a whole city that was like high school."

The experience, Rogen says, "made me angry -- I was really an angry, angry guy. ... I'd written 'Superbad' (with Evan Goldberg) and nobody wanted it. And at the same time I'm getting auditions for these really, really crappy movies. And I'm thinking, 'They're making this? And they won't read our script?' It took me a while to learn to let that go."

The turning point was 2005's "40-Year-Old Virgin," directed by Judd Apatow, who'd worked with Rogen on television. He not only gave the actor a small part, but a role as co-producer. The film became a breakthrough hit for Steve Carell, and other Apatow hits followed, each one both enlarging his stock company and elevating a comic actor -- Jason Segel, Paul Rudd, Jonah Hill and, most of all, Rogen -- to the next level.

"One of the things Judd's taught us most is that a good idea can come from anywhere," Rogen says. "Jonah came in to do one line, literally, in '40-Year-Old Virgin,' but he improvised and we realized he was pretty funny and Judd spent like four hours shooting him, and after that he started getting other jobs, all because of that one line. Where, another director, it'd be 'Yeah, great, next.'"

The movie also showed a real willingness to break taboos, and push the R rating about as far it could go. "Knocked Up" added jokes about unprotected sex, and graphic close-ups of childbirth. "Superbad" featured gags about menstruation and teen drinking. "Observe and Report" goes, if possible, even further, flirting with issues like racism and date rape.

"What makes me laugh is when you expect something and then people dismantle that," Rogen says. "I think Evan and I have done that a bit, but Jody, it's like he's dismantling the whole concept of comedy. You're watching this and wondering, 'OK, did this just cross the line? Am I going to have to walk out?' But then he finds a way to make it okay, and you end up laughing at stuff you never thought you'd laugh at."

"I give the studio a lot of credit for taking a chance on this," says Jody Hill. "But Seth was a real part of that from the beginning. When we were ready to shoot, he said, 'No, we've got to talk to the studio first' and we went in there and sat down and he said, 'You know, this is the movie we want to make and we have to be free to make it the way we want to.' ... He's a standup guy -- a real, regular person."

What Rogen also appreciates, he says, are movies that cast people who look like regular people.

"Which shouldn't be such a giant ideological slant, you know?" he says. "It's such a simple thing, but it made a huge difference. I mean, I know I didn't relate to high school movies growing up. The nerdy high schooler in 'Risky Business' who can't get a girl? And he's played by Tom Cruise? Who relates to that?"

But is hiring guys who don't look like Tom Cruise a new kind of realism or an old kind of wish-fulfillment? When it comes to casting, the men who make these comedies hire actors who look like, well, the men who make these comedies. But the actresses still look like pin-ups. For a genre that's supposed to be about new risks, isn't this a sexist cliche? Would Seth Rogen get the gorgeous girl anywhere but in a Seth Rogen movie?

"The guys who say that are just guys who can't get girls themselves," Rogen insists. "You know, 'I can't, therefore it's literally impossible that he could.' They're just losers, and it's so obvious -- and it's so funny they don't realize that. I mean, every day you see women with guys who don't look that good. And you think, 'Man, that guy must be hilarious, or rich, or have some hidden asset.' I realized from a very early age that women didn't care nearly as much about looks as men thought they did."

If Rogen's been on the receiving end of a few internet insults, though, he'd better prepare for more. Finally -- after years of development and on-again, off-again deals -- his script with Goldberg for "The Green Hornet" is being made. And it's being made with the slimmed-down -- but still recognizably regular-guy Rogen -- in the lead.

"Oh, people are prepared to hate us," he admits cheerfully. "Actually, for the DVD release, we want to do a documentary on all the old Green Hornet fans and how much they hate us. Show them the movie and then bring them in and let them tell us how we changed everything and absolutely ruined it. I think that would be really entertaining, actually."

But Rogen has more lined up than just running around to "Flight of the Bumblebee." He's still promoting "Observe and Report," which opens Friday. He has another film lined up for Apatow, the comedy/drama "Funny People." And he's working on developing a series for Showtime about twentysomethings who work in an "adult boutique" -- "Sort of 'Zack and Miri' meet 'Clerks,'" he says, chuckling.

This time, though, the laughter sounds real, and unworried.

"'Observe and Report' is kind of a risk, but I've got no concerns,' he says. "I mean, hey, it's not my money. I get paid in advance, and that check's been spent. But honestly, to me the movie works, it's original, so there's already a big check mark next to it in my head... 'Funny People,' that's a more serious thing but hey, that's the movie Judd wants to make right now, and I want to help him out. That's all. People think I put a whole lot more thought into these decisions than I do. It's more like, what's happening? Oh yeah? Really? Okay, great. I'm there."